“Agents of Change”: Progressive Democratic ‘Diffusion’ Across U.S. House and State Legislative Elections in 2018
Social Sciences
Politics 190M
This research project investigates how, and to what extend, did the national political trends of the "Blue Wave," and ideological fracture of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House, reflect across states during the 2018 midterms. Although these national political trends are studied by the media and in academia, there is less research conducted at the state level to demonstrate if the "Blue Wave" and the ideological fracture of the Democratic Party diffused across state legislatures. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, although there was a lack of a "Blue Wave" in state houses, there is a moderate correlation between progressive Democrats winning state legislative elections in states where there are less institutional campaign barriers and featured high-profile progressive Democrats winning congressional elections.
